CHICAGO STYLE

I never thought that I would see anyone who made the Clinton's look like political amateurs, but that was before Our Dear Leader.

Kevin Johnson, former NBA star and current mayor of Sacramento, CA, seems like a nice enough guy. People seem to like him, and he seems to be pretty popular as far as mayors go. Before he became mayor, he was involved in some charity work, and was cleaning up a pretty slummy area of Sacramento. He started the St Hope Foundation.

And I can hear you say, so what? I live in Oklahoma. Well, here is where the story gets interesting. Johnson was working with Americorps in his clean up effort (Oak Park to be specific), with his foundation St Hope. And that is fine and well, except it seems when the Inspector General of Americorps looked into it, he discovered Mr Johnson had misappropriated or misspent (depending on your point of view) $850,000 for what seems to be mostly personal use, like having his car washed.

And that is all fine and well, Mr Johnson says he will repay the money (if he hasn't done so already). He seems to be a pretty stand up guy, the agreement is for a total of a little over $400,000 to be repaid.

But here is where everything gets screwy. Mr Johnson was a political contributor to Our Dear Leaders campaign. Hopefully it didn't come out of the $850,000.

AmeriCorps inspector general, Gerald Walpin, was just fired by Our Dear Leader. Seems he was sent a note giving him one hour to clear out, or get canned.

According to the rules, the Inspector General must be given 30 days notice, and Congress and the President both must be in agreement, and there needs to be a reason given. The position was supposed to be non political. But then, why would he start following rules now?

"It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general," Obama said in a letter Thursday to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Joe Biden, who also serves as president of the Senate. "That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general." And that was the extent of the reason.

Walpin had identified millions of dollars in AmeriCorps funds that were wasted or misspent and "it appears he has been doing a good job.

Walpin was criticized by the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento for the way he handled the investigation of Johnson and St. HOPE Academy.

Kevin Hiestand, chairman of the board of St. HOPE Academy, said in a statement it was "about time" Walpin was removed. "Mr. Walpin's allegations were meritless and clearly motivated by matters beyond an honest assessment of our program," he said.

In settling the case, the government agreed to lift its suspension of any future grants to the academy and Johnson agreed to immediately repay $73,000 in past grants. The academy was given 10 years to repay the remaining $350,000.
Brown said at the time of the settlement that prosecutors determined there was no fraud, but rather a culture of "sloppiness" in St. HOPE's record-keeping.

In an e-mail response to Mr. Eisen Thursday, Mr. Walpin said he refused to resign on such short notice because “it would do a disservice to the independent scheme [for inspector generals] that Congress had mandated - and could potentially raise questions about my own integrity - if I were to render what would seem to many a very hasty response to your request.”
But Mr. Walpin, in his e-mail to Mr. Eisen, said he wasn’t convinced of the White House’s assertion that his firing and the release of two reports he recently submitted that are highly critical of AmeriCorps parent group, the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), wasn’t “coincidence.”

I'm sure there is absolutely nothing political going on here. How much do you want to bet the new Inspector General is from Chicago.

UPDATE - Johnson is a personal friend of Johnson - Senator Obama voted for the congressional rules that President Obama just violated.